Nice group tasted a bunch of '96s last night. In payment/voting/taxi flurry I left my notes; but thought I'd at least post impressions.Some very good wines, my grading is tougher than usual due to competition:

John B. served a blind Sauternes. Guesses were all over the place. It was the 2001 de Fargues - double-decanted on 4/24! B+

Though table was tight, I enjoyed food at Gavroche . Convivial crowd, thanks to organizers . Overall I was very pleased with showing of the Medocs (except the Poyferre & Barton, I think both were off especially the Poyferre).

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Disclaimer of disclaimer- last night I was a tougher scorer.

Dale,
I love your claim that you're an easy grader. I probably would give most of these wines A's. I'm much harder on my students. Your grades are probably rock solid right on. I doubt you need to continue the apology at the end. Great job on the notes. I wish I could have been there!
Cheers!
James

Where would you put the Ducru on the maturation curve? A couple - maybe three - years ago I thought the bottle that I opened was quite young. Was sorry that I opened it. If you only had five left, like I do, would you wait for a while before opening the next one?

James, as noted, I was tougher grader Monday due to the competition -would have been lots of As on my normal scale.

Covert, this bottle was drinking nicely, but like most it had seen couple hours in a decanter that AM before going back into bottle, and then some more air time at restaurant. My guess (and these things are always guesses) is that prime time for this Ducru will be 2012-2020.